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[Outside Caves]

Rep was fine as Dakota left, even the insult as far as losing spars meant little to him. The Rep in this world was a snivelling, cowardly failure, he was as different to the proud and potent royalty that stood before the dark haired man as a kitten to a tiger. Insults washed over him with the satisfaction that if it was his own kingdom, his own Vegas, Dakota would be removed from his concerns like an unsightly blemish.

There were sounds from the cave behind them, resonating up through the dark and he gave the path a half lidded glance, he was used to sounds like that, desperate cries of anguish, swearing. He had no idea what it meant and to him, as long as it wasn't his guys, it was irrelevant.

When Jordan arrived it was another weight off of his mind, they might not be his exact people but this version of himself trusted them wholeheartedly, and that was reason enough to treat them both as a relatively stable base of operations.

"I am perfectly ******** fine." he said. "I'll be even more fine once I get back to Vegas."

The caves were a thoroughfare however and soon they were joined by another, a chilly woman, familiar to the false self, alien to him. He looked her over with a slow deliberate gaze, at least someone kept their head while all around were losing theirs.

The twist of pain was not his own at the knowledge that Clerise was dead, the hunched and broken figure by the ashes. The other him knew her, trusted her, loved her even like a sister. But to him she was just another fatality, another figure who was irrelevant in comparison to the triad who ruled protection.

"Why hello there ice queen." he purred. "I could show you a staff."

[Outside Caves]

Jordan listened to Jerry's half-explanation. Clerise is - what? Injured? Killed? That Dr. guy? Was Jerry referring to Dr. H? The artifacts were gone - that was only half a surprise.

Sasha's blunter, sharper summary explained more, and Jordan flinched slightly at the news. Clarice and Clerise, both dead. Mimsy crazy, maybe because of the loss of her cousin. "Do you know what happened?" he asked.

Rep's statement was confusing for a few seconds; then his stance and the look of lazy arrogance on his face gave Jordan the rest of the cues he needed to figure out what the hell was up with his fiance. Somehow, for some reason, this was not his version of Rep. His shoulders stiffened when Rep casually propositioned Sasha, as though they'd never - no. Keep it under control. He couldn't afford to let anger or jealousy overrule rational thought. He could deal with this.

He took a deep, controlled breath and altered his stance subtly. When he spoke, it was with a confident snap and an edge to his voice. "This is not a good time, Rep. Security's breached. I need you alert."

[Outside Caves]

"W-wait... what? C-clerise too?" Jerry blinked at the young woman that had joined them, a look of shocked disbelief written all over his face. "But she was just... when we were down there she was-" Caelius. He shouldn't have been surprised. It was good he had dragged Rep and Harrison out of there at least.

In the back of his mind, Roar gave a strangled howl that made him flinch, hands flying to his ears to block the mental sound- not that the action did any good.

SHE CAN'T BE DEAD, the howler roared.

"J-just... calm down!" He wheezed back under his breath.

[Caves]

Deryk's face paled considerably as he witnessed everything that happened here. Clerise was trying to stop Caelius and paid the price. Her had had been cut clean off. To him, it seemed like a pretty good lesson of what not to do. He had just begun to back away when he saw Mimsy attacking the body.

He left quickly, not wanting to watch any more of this.

[Outside the caves]

"H-her head.." he stammered out as he made his way out, noticing the others talking about about what had just occurred. Everything was going to s**t.

Checking his phone, he noticed that there was a note about Merlin's staff.

"I...I should get going."

Nodding, he started rushing off towards the Western perimeter.

[Exit]

"Jerry, your incessant stuttering isn't helping either. Now run along, go find Bix. We're all busy here."

Sasha shooed at Jerry before turning her very rapt attention back to Harrison, Rep and Jordan.

Jordan gritted his teeth. Harrison was also not acting like the Harrison Jordan knew; he also wasn't acting like the Boss, and Jordan wasn't sure if he was relieved or not. He didn't have enough information, and the comments from Sasha were not helping. He was not going to yell. Instead, he summoned Ferros and slammed the spike on the hammer's head into the ground, keeping a tight hold on the handle. It helped somewhat.

"This," he said calmly, "is not the time. I need to check out what's going on with security and whether we're going to have to worry about incursions. I'd appreciate it if you weren't making my job harder." The last comment was directed mostly at Rep.

That response sounded familiar, at least.

"Heh. Well I wasn't gonna let her touch it."

Jordan materialized a hammer out of thin air. Working on his illusions...? He was always good at those. He looked at Jordan hopefully.

"So uh. Job. What do you want us doing, exactly?"

[northern security detail]

Wash nodded and smiled at Edith uncertainly as she told them to hold their position. Sally was a familiar weight on his arm.

His phone buzzed then, and he nearly jumped out of his skin - it was so quiet out here, watching the waves lap against the shore. It was a nice beach, he reflected. Certainly one of the easier posts to man.

He didn't bother checking his phone. Probably wasn't his problem. Hold your position, she'd said.