Welcome to Gaia! ::

Still had sent Sergei a text, asking for when he had a night off duty. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy spending time with him on patrols, being an unofficial partner of sorts, but she didn't want any distractions tonight. When a reply was given, she arranged a meeting time and place. Early evening, at one of the parks he liked to do his 3 AM runs in. She was there when he arrived, of course, but as soon as she was close enough to him, she took his hand and teleported them.

They appeared in a location quite a distance outside Destiny City. It was another park of sorts, actually. A picnic area attached to the many hiking trails outside the city, in the hills surrounding it. The picnic area was populated with benches, tables, at the edge, a rail fence, a few overhead lights here and there and beyond the fence, the city in it's full nightly glory. Dozens of glittering lights on the horizon that spanned wide and tall from the various buildings. They were near the fence, a prime spot to lean on the rail and view the sight of the city laid out.

The corrupt offered no explanation yet as to the sudden location changed, and took to leaning against the rail, looking over at the man. She let go of his hand, gently, and crossed her arms. "We're going to talk about you tonight, Malysh." She finally said, smiling a bit. "I imagine you already heard from Nadia how our meeting went." They seemed to talk a lot and update each other. It was what siblings did, right? "It was very...enlightening." In more ways than one, for both good and...bad. "But also refreshing. She's incredibly understanding and reasonable. She's amazing, really." Her eyes briefly creased in genuine affection and amusement at the thought of the woman.

"She's no longer a shield you can use to protect yourself." Still's tone and expression didn't darken, but there was no mistaking the authoritative edge as she looked at him. "She's also no longer a weapon you can wield against me. Nadia says she was the last thing you could hold onto, to feel the way you do, but I disagree. I believe there's one more thing, and we're going to even the field between us tonight." There was only a slight pause, but not long enough to let the man get a foot in until she had asked.

"Is it guilt, Sergei?"

"I'm asking for you to be honest with me." The corrupt replied. "Because there is this tension between us that comes forth practically every time I try to talk to you. To get close to you, and I want to get to the bottom of it." She didn't care if he was put into a bad mood. At this point, it felt like to make an omelet, she'd have to break a few more eggs with the man...or really, a couple dozen.

"You're a surly man by nature, but you're always even more angry when you look at me and speak to me, and I want to know why. Why do you use your sister as a shield against me? What is it you feel, that you use her as a shield?"

"I give you nothing but honesty to the best of my ability. It's you who doesn't. I answer questions when you ask, but they are few and far in between, and I do what you demand---between being honest and also meeting with your sister. So far, it is I who goes the distance, and you who digs your feet in and refuses to budge. I am pushy and demanding because you leave me no choice to be. If I want anything from you, I have to pry it, and any attempts to be patient and wait produce nothing."

The corrupt stopped leaning against the rail and stood. Still turned to fully face the man, ready to go toe to toe with him.

"You don't know what you want, Sergei." She replied. "It was you who started that night in the back of your cruiser, because you wanted it. You then wanted to run. You tried to run when I confronted you, and then you wanted to keep going." Somewhere, deep down, his words stung, but she didn't let it show. Instead, she let it stoke the fire she was feeling.

"But it's a good start. Let's keep going. Since you continue to not be forth coming, I'll take a shot in the dark. Tell me if I'm the right track or not, hm? I think it's guilt you feel, that drives you to be angry, which you then lash out at me with." She had an inkling he wasn't being completely honest with her during that one talk they had in the park many months ago. He had so much anger, and she couldn't piece where it stemmed from until she spoke to Nadia. Nadia, who seemed to feel guilty for not being around when she...

"I think it's a guilt you share with your sister. You feel guilty for not being there when I was corrupted. You feel guilty because you like me better than you ever liked Olga."

"When you say half truths, if you're referring to the fact I can't compromise my civilian identity, then yes it is half truths. But you know war, Sergei, and you know why it has to be that way. As for everything else, everything I have said to you about me, it has been true."

She stepped closer to him.

"It doesn't matter if you don't seek me out---it still doesn't change you're a willing participant." The attempts to cut, well---yes. They stung, too. It was...weird. For the first time she had woken up, now eleven months, she felt honest pain. A fear of loss. These feelings bubbled up around the edges, but what drove her still, was this determination to cut through the thick sheet of ice that made his exterior to just get the heart of the issue. If nothing else came of this...she just wanted that. It was all she had to hang onto in this moment.

The corrupt reached out to take his chin between her thumb and forefinger, and it was with firm strength she turned his head to meet her eyes again.

"You look me in the eye and say those things, Sergei, and mean them. You're quick to strike back, but you're ignoring how you're continuing to contradict yourself. You claim you want nothing to do with me, but now you're saying it's all atonement for Olga? Who is the one speaking half truths now? I can't believe you call yourself one of Destiny's City's finest. You are Destiny City's dodgiest, Sergei Vetrov. I know Negaverse Generals with more integrity than you. Agents who can be actually truthful to those around them, but also more importantly, to themselves." Her fingers tightened their hold on him, briefly.

"Mostly physical? Please. If my worth to you was mostly a piece of a**, we wouldn't be here right now." She barked a bit of a laugh. Short. "I can't be a replacement, Sergei. You don't want Olga back, and you know that person I used to be is never coming back."

She let go of his chin, but only to reach and cup his face between her hands.

"This conversation won't be over until we get to the bottom if it. I won't let you go until we do. If you want to keep going in circles with me, I'll dance as long as I need to. All night. All day. However long it takes for you to stop acting like a fool."

She didn't reply to the matter of civilian identities. He was skirting a dangerous line by saying that out loud. She did know his civilian identity, and if he was making a point that she knew about it, it meant he had another that needed to be kept secret.

"I am aware of this, yes, and once again, I tell you I am not Olga. It is different. It did carry over, but it is different." She shook her head a bit, feeling something else spring up. Exasperation. "You don't know and you don't bother to ask." It was welling up. He removed her hands, and while she didn't reach for him again, she did take another step closer to him so that he couldn't keep the distance between them. "I don't have any ulterior motives. I don't want to play you, or manipulate you, or own you, none of that---I just want to know you, and it doesn't matter how I try, and I have tried every way I can, because you are protecting yourself from me, and I don't mean on a level of war---on a level of physical safety." While she did not plead, the ferocity of her approach before softened.

"I want to be close to you. That is all I have wanted since, and everything I have done up to this point has been for that attempt, but you, at every turn, keep me away. Push me away." She paused for a moment, regarding him, and it wasn't hard to see he was building up walls again, and that hurt. "If after tonight, I disappeared, and you never saw me again, would that make you happy? Would you be able to move on and forget about me? Would you be able to let go?"

She did not move again after he stepped away once more. She only looked at him. She also said nothing for quite some time. Nothing showed on the corrupt's face, but she internalized it all. Gathered it, held onto it, to look over later when she was alone.

After the man had finished speaking, Still was quiet for a bit longer, and her eyes closed. Just for a moment or two, and then she opened them. "Every step of the way, you contradict yourself. Your words contradict your actions." She said simply. "The contradiction makes it hard for me to understand. Hard to understand this. You." She paused, slightly. "From day one, Sergei, you knew who I used to be and what I was. From day one, you knew, and yet you chose to go forward, anyways. From day one, you knew this would be anything but simple, but you chose to go forward, anyways."

So the fact he was hitting the brakes now...well. It was funny. It hurt, but it was also funny. Somehow. Still didn't say anything more. She didn't know what else she could. Knew that, right now, there was nothing else to say.

Instead, she did move forward again, long legs and enhanced speed eating the distance between them before he could register it. She reached out to lightly touch his arm, and they teleported. The pair reappeared in the park she had originally asked to meet him at, and it was only a few seconds before she let go of him, and then disappeared herself.