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Lately, Abbi didn't like being honest with herself.
It was messy, she had too many emotions involved, and it meant she had to seriously consider that she wasn't really acting how she always thought she'd wanted to. But when Chel DM's her, the girl decides that just for today she'll let her thoughts come as they want and that she won't tell herself she can't think about something.
And today she's thinking that this situation is really ******** up.

Freckled hands shake as she hurries from the Infirmary to her room, but she tries to keep them clenched in her pockets or at her sides or around her phone, but Abbi just can't keep from fidgeting, even as she jogs. She only trips once on her way up the stairs to her room, when she thinks about what it means that a clone has taken Chris's place, but she regains her balance and goes back on being honest with herself.
Though she does hurry, Abbi ends up taking longer than she means to. She texted Jack and Dawson, promised to meet them soon, but she needs time to plan, even just with her ghost.
{ Bandages, band-aids, needle n'thread... oi, you used those vials didn'ya? }
"Yeah, back when you got locked out." Abbi's motions get clumsy as Viveca picks apart those memories and inspect them, but since the teen is just shifting through clothing it thankfully doesn't hinder her in any way. She has to change, its important to her to wear something different on a mission like this because its necessary to keep the good memories with the good dresses and skirts. Its a shame to throw out a shirt because its splattered with blood and bad happenings.

Eventually Abbi picks out black shorts, a nice frilly shirt with a blue sailor collar, and matching thigh highs. She switches to boots, she keeps the rabbit eared backpack, and she grabs her old black scarf from her Trainee days. Since she'd been meaning to get rid of it anyways, now seemed as good a time as any.
Unwilling to curb her nervous tendencies, the girl clomps down to the basement and bangs on Dawson's door hard enough that her hand hurts.
"Come along Bucky! Gotta go save your Cap!" And despite her worry, Abbi cannot help but crack a smile. "Oooh, does this make me Natasha? I can dig it... So is Jack Director Fury then? I guess that could work, Chel can be Maria Hill but I don't really ship them..." This is a very serious matter, but this is also a needed distraction.

A little surprised that Dawson hasn't answered the door as soon as Abbi first punched it, because really that's what she'd done, she almost tries the knob. But just as she's about to squash her worries about privacy and reach for the handle, the door opens and Dawson is there.
And he's all wrong, and that hurts more than Abbi thought it would.

The smile he gives her is too thin, its mechanical, and his words sound like--
(Abbi won't let herself think 'a ghost' because there's too much loaded on that word, right now and forever).
She backs up to let him out of the room, and toddles off after him down the corridor, but this isn't right. Because she knows she can, Abbi reaches out a hand and touches the man just above his elbow, wraps her fingers around what she can of his arm and stops them in the hallway. For a long moment she doesn't say anything, just concentrates on his face and tries to order her thoughts.
It feels weird to be involved in something like this because she cares, but she knows she can't possibly care as much as Dawson does. He's a sponge of emotions, he leaks them everywhere and soaks them from other people, and Abbi doesn't want to contribute to what he's feeling.
So she laughs, a wide grin and bright chirp of sound, and turns the hand on his arm into a fist she uses to lightly punch the place she'd just been holding.

"You doubting me?" Again she laughs and hurries forward, happy to be the leader once again as she heads up the stairs. "Won't you be surprised when I pull off a flawless roundhouse kick? And in pigtails no less!"
Jack will be stern and serious, he will bring levity to the situation and while Abbi doesn't want to seem careless, she has just decided that anything less than success is not an option. If that means faking it til she makes it, she can do that.

Jack answers on the third knock. There's a mug of half-drunk coffee by the machine, and several drawers have been left open. It appears they've caught him in the middle of stuffing things into a backpack.

He's also distinctly missing the green hair, and for some reason is instead sporting a much shorter, spikier look, with one side shaved and the colors now a dark brown with a hint of dark purple at the tips.

"I'll make this quick. What'd she tell you?" He's as brisk as ever, not even standing still long enough to look at them.

Dawson remained silent as Abbi took over, if a little paler than usual after the hair comment. There had been a moment where Jack had visibly bristled, but with his back to them, it was impossible to see the expression the giant wore. Dawson imagined it was better that way.

"She's in quarantine because it's safer," Jack replied curtly as he rolled another shirt up and stacked it with the rest inside his backpack. "Listen to me carefully. You're to go and inform Edith that Chris has been acting strangely since returning from his mission, and that you suspect he may be a clone. He has not been witnessed summoning and tried to bribe a hunter into killing Dr. H. If she doesn't tell you outright, I will right now."

Jack looked up and gave them both a stern look, magnified by the stress he was carrying. "You will not engage the clone any further after this, unless your leader gives you a specific task concerning it. Whatever the ******** it's after, you're neither to meddle nor speak of it to anyone else. Understood?"

Dawson felt another layer of sweat rise along the back of his neck. He couldn't help but notice he avoided giving Abbi more answers, but he wasn't going to try pointing it out. Instead, he glanced to Abbi and waited for her lead.

"Abbi," Dawson whispers, not liking the way the giant's hand clenched or how his eyes flashed, a soft warning not to push it. He doesn't like Jack, but that doesn't mean being this blunt will help. They're all on edge already, and he wants nothing more than to try and ease it enough for cooperation.

Jack seems to battle with several different responses, each equally as nasty or worse than the one before it. This was exactly why he didn't want to bring more people in: it caused delays like this. This was the bullshit here.

"Not this kind of clone," he pointed out, clearly annoyed but not yet snapping. Inches, inches. "This one is clearly more advanced. None of us could tell until now that it wasn't the real thing. The clones I've helped capture have only one facet of the original. So maybe," there went the ice as he loomed over them both (Dawson surreptitiously inching in front of Abbi), "you should ******** listen to me for once and just do what you're told, since I'm the one with experience here as you've correctly pointed out. Because the ones I fought, Abbi, have hyper regeneration. Their arm will ******** drag itself back to its body if you manage to cut it off, they're god damn blood sucks itself back into the vessels for ******** sake. Who ******** knows what this kind has on top of all of that.

"So do me a favor, shut the ******** up, and go do what I told you." He turned away to gather up the last of his things.

There was a beat, and then Dawson asked hesitantly, "I-Is she okay at least? In her...whatever place fer quarantine?"

"She's fine." Jack leaned over to get Barbara's case. Always fine.

God, he missed Chel's compliance already. "I'm not going with you," Jack said as he slung the bag over his shoulder. "I have to find Dr. H." Wasn't the word quarantine enough? He was surprised honestly that Abbi hadn't been confided in before, but then again it would be just like Chel to give just enough detail to satisfy curiosity without giving it all away—an ability he apparently lacked the nuances for while so wound up.

"Suspected legacy s**t," he eventually offered, quick and clinical. "Merlin. He's both targeted her and threatened Chris before." And that would have to do for now; Abbi was smart enough to piece together the previous quarantine's connection. "Now get the hell out of my room and find Edith already."

Belatedly he picked up his half empty mug of cold coffee and started downing it like it didn't sour his mouth completely.

Dawson lost another shade of color, and his eyes seemed like stark color against his skin. Blindly he groped for Abbi's hand again, giving it a small tug and a look. C'mon, Moon Princess. "We'll make sure it goes okay on our end," he mumbled.

Dawson waited patiently as ever as Abbi tore away to get in one last word, hands clasping one another. God, but he hoped they didn't get roped into a capture mission. Or if they really had to, that he had a chance to talk to the one wearing Chris' face. (He doesn't say thing, he knows these are as much people as they are.) But Abbi was so fired up about it, he felt the knot of guilt tighten even more. She wanted so much to do something worthwhile in this new situation, and he felt that need keenly himself. Had always felt that need.

Wit Jack saying nothing in response, they were finally off the hook. Moon Princess had set quite the brisk walk, but he said nothing about it and only lengthened his strides to keep up. His mind raced much faster.

Targeted her. Threatened Chris. Neither of them had ever mentioned it. God, he wouldn't have either, but it didn't stop Dawson from looking cross. Always little secrets from each other, always the need not to worry. And now all he could think was, who else was going to crop up as a clone? What had Merlin done to them?

(Can I help?)

"Edith'll know what t'do," he said eventually, trying to soothe Abbi's fired up state as they made their way to the Moon Lead's office. "She'll understand us wan'in' t'help."

He had absolutely no Goddamn idea how Edith was going to react, however, much less whether sympathy would remotely play in it. Hell, he was nervous enough because of the fact that he was going to be visiting her and bringing up clones for the second time now--and worse, that there was a chance she knew how much he had been communicating with Caly despite her warning.

Gulping, he knocked. "Ma'am? Uh, Ms. Edith?"

Being honest with herself, just for a second, Abbi feels a keen sting that Jack says nothing else.
They have Prague, a happy time to tie their lives together, but she now feels that is the barest of threads and that perhaps she has snapped even that just now. So she starts naming as many types of rabbits that she remembers in her mind, and moves on to bears, and then cats, and when she is still thinking about Jack, she squeezes Dawson's hand and thinks about every book she owns in alphabetical order.

Dawson tries, and Abbi turns back to smile at him quickly, just a flash of her profile before she's turned around and leading them on. There is no time to dilly-dally, there isn't time for her to feel sorry for herself. After all, how worried must Dawson be over Chris?
That does something to temper Abbi's own worries, and she quickens her pace that much more until she nearly trips over herself to stop outside Edith's door.
When called to enter Abbi turns the knob and coaxes open the door, all prepared to say everything she needs to.

Instead she says, "Wow! What a shiner!" She immediately regrets her whole life.
"I mean uh-- Crapbaskets-- I can um, I have an ice pack! Or um, its one of those that uh you crack and it gets cold, do you-- um-- Do you want it?" She's already begun to take the rabbit eared bag off her back, fumbling with one of the zippers.
"Oh also there's like, a clone of our friend Chris Axten? He's in Moon, and we're in Moon. And um, uh, like we... We're pretty sure he's a clone because you see his cousin Chel-- Chelsea C-Craft, she um--" Oh no no no no no! This is not what she wants at all!

Ceasing all her fumbling with a snap, Abbi stands up straight and tries to look as militaristic as she can. "We have reason to believe that our friend has been replaced with a clone! He has acted erratically since his most recent mission, he has not been witnessed to have summoned, and he has suggested a fellow Hunter commit treason! We are here to inform you of that and... Um... Yes. That's... We did it."

She's not wrong, at least...