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"Well perhaps," Eamon replied in a measured tone, "Ye should've told me tha'. I've been workin' blind this entire time. Hell, one o' those poor bastards, I hadn't even seen 'im before." Eamon paused and sighed. "I don' have the energy fer this. We can discuss this lat'r." Eamon slipped a hand into his jacket and pulled out his flask. The sooner the better, he figured, opening it and taking a swig. The sooner they got back, the better. The sooner they moved on, the better. The sooner they forgot, the better. All of 'em. Had to be that way. It was never easy.

"It's a shame, either way." Leon had appeared in the car again somewhere along the way, they realized. He was mildly blood-spattered. Nobody had seen him come or go, and what he'd been doing was frankly a bit of a mystery. Eamon and Dr. Miles vaguely recalled that he was able to project what administration was quite adamant about not calling a Someone Else's Problem Field. He was able to utilize a form of Wizardry that made people incapable of perceiving him, even if he was in plain view of them. "They were willing to fight alongside us, and that alone is enough to make their deaths a loss." He had to feel. He forced himself to when he didn't do it naturally. The alternative unnerved him too much to allow.

They arrived back at the base and were greeted by solemn silence. Someone, everyone knew about the two deaths already. Most of those on-site had someone they knew KIA at some point. None of them were inclined to tell the returning team how to deal with it. Damien was waiting for them.

"Debriefing in an hour. Don't tell others what you saw until we've gone over it with you there. Our home team has analyzed data from the fight, and the autopsies should be analyzed by then as well. We have some suspicions that we need to test. I won't tell you what to do with your time." He was muted, brief, and gone almost as soon as he'd arrived.

Nathaniel was stunned by the doctor's actions. He just stared at her, head cocked to the side. The man didn't understand her feelings about this. They had died doing what Illuminated did best. Fighting. While Nathaniel hadn't known them, he suspected that, in their eyes, they had died good deaths. He frowned slightly, struggling to understand why she was taking this so hard, confused as to why she had hit him. Nathaniel shook his head. Dr. Miles suddenly seemed very irrational. Emotion complicated everything. Connections with other people made simple situations difficult to deal with without offending some party. Nathaniel stared at the window, amazed at how crazy and irrational the sane could be. He ignored the conversation between Dr. Miles and Eamon until they arrived at the base.

Once Damien finished with his explanation of what would be happening, Nathaniel turned to Dr. Miles, "Yes. They were people, doctor. People with their own beliefs about death. I'm willing to bet that at least one of them was satisfied with that death. I would have been." he sighed, "I'm sorry if you were close to Niko in some way, but making connections and becoming emotional about somebody on your team is going to make things difficult for you, mentally speaking." he shrugged, suddenly sounding rather educated.

"There are reasons I used to work alone. Other people's emotions is one of them. Hitting a lunatic who is addicted to killing other human beings is not going to bring your friend back." Nathaniel walked away from the doctor, "Nor is trying to explain the value of life to said lunatic. Read my file." He sighed, heading back to the cafeteria in hopes of gulping down at least some food before the debriefing.

Nathaniel stopped and sighed. He closed his eyes, cracking his neck in a very slow and deliberate way. Rachel's comments and actions were beginning to remind him of his mother. b***h had been colder than a god damned blizzard. The man turned around and stared at the doctor with his empty eyes. He smiled at the doctor, "True. I suppose you could say that I did disobey orders. However, if you remember correctly, Mr. O'Byrne ordered the team not to let the target get away. Last I checked, that gave me the excuse to go after that thing. He," the man nodded toward Strings, "was protecting the car after I obeyed my commanding officers orders. As was Richard. In my eyes, the vehicle had enough protection, so I made the tactical decision to back up my team because I had a spell that I believe could have killed the target, indoors or out. At least I didn't sit in the car bitching out orders to people I had no control over."

"Yes. I did lose control, but that is a risk I have to live with. You have no right to judge me. Not until you've killed your entire family by accident and woken up in a pool of their blood." Nathaniel smirked, "I imagine that means you never will have the right to judge me, correct? By your logic, I am a human being. I have thoughts and feelings too, correct? Or am I just some animal to be broken and trained?"

The thin man chuckled, "People are animals, doctor. All of them. Life has no real value. Get off of your damned high horse and start thinking." he shook his head. Nathaniel turned and began walking away once more, "You aren't going to hurt my feelings, Dr. Miles. You lost my respect when this became a power play for you. Insulting me, looking down on me. You're like a child." he exited the garage with that line, the smile disappearing from his face.

"Don't bother, Doctor," Leon advised Rachel. Not desiring to fully wait for their unfriendly companion to leave earshot, he blinded Nathaniel to him; the insane Witch could neither see him nor hear him. Nathaniel's senses would, if he directed his attention, receive the input. His brain, unfortunately for him, would discard the data. As in the fight, even his conspicuous absence could not be noted successfully. "Let's be honest. Nothing you say is going to get to him. You know that as well as I. Hell, you should know it better. You're the psych... iatrist?" Leon wasn't actually sure whether she had access to the base pharmacy or not. He was assigned to someone else, anyway. He'd probably end up reassigned to her, but that would be later.

Leon shook his head. "Once someone starts on the path he walks, it's far too late. You can hear it in his words and see it in his eyes. He has not just acknowledged the hold of the hunger; he permits it to define him. He justifies, or rather excuses, all his actions with it. When..." he smiled sardonically, "... people allow that to happen, they end up as more weapon than person. The kindest thing you can do for him now is to ignore him until you need to recommend him for cryo... or euthanasia."

"Could always go with cryo. I'm pretty sure this base has three or four emergency slayers on ice. I don't think he quite measure up to them, but if y'think he can be helped, wouldn't hurt to keep him alive, right?" Leon responded. "He's not a plays-well-with-others type, though, and that's the real problem. If this keeps up I can't see it ending with him coming with us anywhere..." He sighed. "When it comes down to it, it isn't about strength. And it's not about luck, either," he added. "It's about loyalty. A unit that can't function as a coherent, well, team? It gets wiped. It's no wonder things went pear-shaped out there. The team hadn't even all met, yet."

"Called it." Richard mumbled to himself, not at all surprised. Yes, they were human, but they were also idiots and had it coming. Richard held little pity for them. His only impression of them had been their stupidity, after all, and Richard had little patience for such people.

Richard was surprised to find that Nathaniel had survived. He knew for sure it was dumb luck, the man was as much of an idiot as Niko. If anything, Richard would have liked to see the kid walk out alive. At least the kid wasn't disobeying orders, he didn't necessarily lose control, just made a poor decision. That was forgivable. Disobeying orders and putting your team in danger isn't. The fact that this man had survived instead of the kid didn't sit well with Richard.

Richard didn't speak on the way, it wasn't expected of him. He ignored Rachel and the Idiot for the most part. He felt a tinge of pity for Eamon. Despite appearances, Richard was confident that there was some reason Eamon was a commanding officer. It wasn't his fault that he was placed in charge of morons and it wasn't entirely his fault that they got themselves killed, but he would be facing the full repercussions of it. Hell, he's already facing consequences from Rachel. It couldn't be easy being responsible for so many individuals.

Upon arriving at the base, Richard acknowledged Damien went towards the armory to return the Leviathan X6-S2 and Niko's Barrett M-82. He would prefer to get acquainted with his commanding officer, but Eamon seemed to have plans of his own. It probably wasn't a good time for that, in any case. After dropping off the firearms, Richard headed to the debriefing room to wait out the hour.

In the debriefing room was Strings. Richard recognized him as the man with the cello. He also remembered that Strings didn't lose control and showed understanding of how a team worked. Already a better first-impression than the three who had gone chasing after the Black Phantom.

Remote Terminal Access: Jake Uso
Welcome to The Terminal
> _
He sent the questions in rapid succession.
As a blue phantom, you are bound to assist your summoner against a nearby demon. The death of your host will return you The Terminal.

As a BLUE PHANTOM, you are in SPIRIT FORM. In SPIRIT FORM, your attacks - physical or magical - will inflict greater harm; however, if struck, you will be harmed more than you would be otherwise. These are in comparison to when you have your BODY.

You may not harm your host as a BLUE PHANTOM.

You may, at any time, issue the command EXIT FRAGMENT. However, using this in the presence of
... parsing terminology...
free spirits, Illuminated, or demons is not advised, as they can siphon away a portion of your power as you return. If threatened, you may seek nearby Terminal Access Points to exit immediately and with no additional harm or loss of power.


Uso found his voice had come out vague and distorted - but not, it seemed, beyond understanding. "Dunno if you noticed, friend, but there are a lot of guns out there. If you're really bulletproof, I'm right behind you, but they got some serious hardware and I got a plus-force sawn-off and a slayer rifle." Casual astral perception indicated the cowboy's guns had some heavy-duty enchantments, but Jake couldn't recognize them. "I can't see this providing enough to suppress them... but I got an idea. You said you like to get up close? How agile are you? More specific, you think you could climb up top then crash in on them from a side or behind or above or somethin'? All six of 'em are gun types, even both their Illuminated, so at that range you should make mince of 'em... if we can get you there."