An hour to midnight

[Lady Jenn]

A sleek, sporty looking car pulled up, and Fizz and Natalya got out. When they saw Clara Fizz nodded to Natalya, who nodded and headed into the house, while Fizz walked over to Clara, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, none of us have asked how you're doing," Fizz said, pulling her into a warm hug. "If you need to talk I'm here, if you can believe it I was like you not that long ago." She sighed. "I was a nerdy student studying making video games, and then one of the Order tried to go on a killing spree in the school. I didn't even know what was going on, but for some reason I decided to stop him. Nat found out and came to recruit me and..." She laughed. "I never thought I'd be trying to save reality for real, if I'm being honest."

[Golden Spider]

(damnit i did it again)

Clara allowed herself to be pulled into the hug, shaking her head at Fizz's words "I.. its all so insane and absurd, like you said I was just a ordinary small town librarian, and now... that man is dying, and I can't help but think of his daughter, his brother, who will likely never know why. He saved Kate, it could've, probably, definitely would've been her if he didn't jump in the way. He helped those things, who in turn did horrible things, but his family doesn't deserve this, to have no answers, to be asking why constantly."


Clara sighed again, wrapping her arms around herself. "And Kate.." she began, unable to help a soft smile at her lips at the mention of the red haired woman. "This is strange for me as well, I've never felt like this about someone so fast, and it scares me, but also seems impossible to resist.. But it can't work out can it, after we win, if we win, she goes back to her regular life, her world, her home, an Entire world! how can i compete with that?"

[Lady Jenn]

Fizz gave her a sympathetic smile. "Between Nat and Lena I'm sure we can track his daughter down. You two looked after him, whatever evil he did he didn't deserve this. We'll..." She paused. "Even if we can't tell his family the whole truth they'll at least know his last act was a heroic one."

She couldn't help laughing slightly at the Kate question, although she did so apologetically. "Why don't you ask her? Maybe she doesn't want to go back, after all, her sister..." She paused again. "And even if it can't last, would you throw away a chance to be happy because it isn't guaranteed to last forever?"

[Golden Spider]

Clara shrugged, she had a feeling that fighting for his family to know the truth was an insurmountable one, so she decided to let that drop. but as the conversation turned to Kate she could only shrug again, grabbing a chunk of some of her hair that had fallen over the front of her shoulder, twisting it slightly in a subconscious motion "No I can't ask that of her, and she also can't really afford to deal with any of this either, what with everything that is going on, you weren't there on our way over here, she's dealt with so much lately, she clearly hasn't given herself any time to feel it, understandably so, if I were her I wouldn't want to get out of bed for a week if I let myself feel it, let alone plan some Mission Impossible infiltration of a top secret military base."

[Lady Jenn]

"Maybe she is thinking the same as you though?" Fizz said. "Take it from someone who has more failed relationships than successful ones, the worst thing to do when you're worrying about something is keeping those worries to yourself."

The door opened, Marcus poking his head out. "Are you two coming in? Lena has made some of her famous homemade chocolate cake, I can't guarantee it'll last long though."

Fizz snorted. "He has a point. C'mon, you've not had proper chocolate cake till you've tried one of Lena's creations. Seriously, I don't know why she never decided to bake cakes for a living."

[Golden Spider]

Clara shook her head again at Fizz's words. "maybe.. I'll think on your words, but I don't want to bring it up now." she said before Marcus poked his head out to inform them of the desert.

She stood up at her words and followed her into the house, "Well then I look forward to experiencing it, you will never catch me saying no to cake that's for sure."

They rejoined the group for a couple moments, enjoying a moment of calm with the chaos that had been going on for the last, was it only a couple days? And once the desert was consumed, and everyone was sated it was time to plan. "So what exactly are we dealing with here?"

[Lady Jenn]

Lena handed her a plate of the cake, which almost seemed to be 80% chocolate with small amounts of cake hiding beneath it. "I'd like to know too," she said, glaring at Natalya. "Nat, you know I love you, and I let your friends in here without a second thought, but I think I'm owed an explanation as much as Clara here is."

With a brief look at Fizz and a sigh Nat brought Lena, who spent the conversation leaning on a table listening closely, before she reached the present. "Our unconscious friend next door might be our best chance to figure out what the Midnight Order are doing, which is probably our best option before we go charging into a military base saying we're here to save the world."

Kate couldn't help laughing, squeezing Clara's hand. "I mean, much as I love the idea of playing the superhero role it's probably a good idea we have some idea what we're doing, so we don't wind up getting shot on sight."

[Golden Spider]

The cake was delicious, certainly lived up to the hype, it being practically inhaled by Clara. It wasn’t until she had her first bite that she had realized how hungry she was, probably the last thing that they had eaten was the treats on the flight, and that also wasn’t a very filling meal.

She shook her head off the thoughts of her empty stomach fought back to the ongoing conversation. Checking back in right to hear the end of the conversation, checking back in right in time to hear Nat’s final statement and Kate’s response. Clara squeezed her hand back, a small smile on her have as the tiny exchange, which quickly faded as they got back into business “yes I personally have had enough shooting, and I’m not even the one that got shot or shot at. But how are we even going to get that info. The man is dying. Will we really be able to get him lucid enough to provide us information that we can actually trust?”

[Lady Jenn]

"I mean the prisoner," Natalya said. "He's going to have to wake up eventually and at that point I think we all have questions we'd like him to ask." She grimaced slightly. "Look, you and Kate have already had one...unpleasant meeting with him, if you'd rather sit this out I wouldn't blame you."

Kate shook her head. "I need to hear what he has to say, I'll put up with my discomfort to do so." She turned to Clara. "But only if you're okay with that, if you'd rather avoid him I'll happily keep you company out here. I'm sure you've got plenty you'd like to ask me too."

[Golden Spider]

Clara turned slightly pink at her mistake "ah yeah the prisoner. almost forgot about that." she muttered as she listened to Nat continue to speak. Questions for the prisoner. A small corner of her mind immediately leaped to the idea of torture. but they wouldn't do that right? They were the good guys. But even good people can do bad things, especially for a good cause, would the torture be necessary, even maybe righteous, if it mean they could stop them from enacting their plans.

But those thoughts were moot right, that is not a situation where they'd be going, at least not yet, hopefully not ever. "I'm fine, if you have questions for him Kate then you can ask them, I don't know if i really have anything to say or ask, but if you want me to be there I'll do it.

[Lady Jenn]

Kate squeezed Clara's hand. "Honestly, I'd prefer to have you there, I'd feel more...calm with you there."

Nat strode towards the door. "C'mon then, I think I can hear our 'friend' waking up." They were led towards a room at the back of the house, an office with a bookcase on nearly every wall other than a large window looking out onto a small but well-kept back garden. The would-be assassin was tied securely to a chair, blinking his eyes slowly as Nat knelt in front of him. "Listen to me Jack, I have no intention of torturing you, but I need you to understand something." As he tried to look away she forced him to look at her. "This is a matter of life and death so you need to start talking and tell us everything you know."

The man looked panicked. "I didn't...he was controlling..." He fell silent, biting his lip. "Fuck, what have I done."

Kate growled. "It's useless Nat, how do we know he's-"

Fizz cut her off, stepping forward. "They bonded one of the Timeless to you, didn't they?"

He nodded. "I've spent two months feeling like my body wasn't mine. I...I swear, I didn't know what I was doing."

[Golden Spider]

Clara watched as the three women did their thing. Keeping her face passive and blank was an act of will while she watched the scene unfold. Personally she was in agreement with what she was assuming Kate was about to say before she was cut off, what if he was just telling them what they wanted to hear. In a dizzying game of mental cat and mouse her thoughts chased each other in an endless loop.

"They know that we would just assume that they are forcing themselves on to innocents, controlling their bodies, and are letting our assumptions screw us over. But if they were able to just let go of him as soon as he was captured, then they would do so. unless they knew that we would assume that they would leave as soon as shit hit the fan and stayed behind to get more intel. Unless they assumed that we would assume that they would assume that we would assume, and did leave after all.

There were so many unknowns still to Clara about these things, what they truly are, what they want, what they are capable of or their limitation, do they even think in a way we can anticipate? She knew that these were all likely questions that the others had as well.

[Lady Jenn]

Nat sighed. "Jack, I want to believe you, but right now I need some evidence you're not just trying to lull us into a false sense of security here."

Jack was silent for a moment before replying. "That...thing inside my mind, I heard it talking. I don't know that I was meant to hear what it was saying but..." He paused again. "The reason they're going after the portal isn't just as an access route. There's something...out there, something they fear. All I know is they call them the Aesir Eir."

Kate stumbled against a nearby table, barely catching herself. "That's...that's not..." Her breath was coming rapidly. "I need a breath of fresh air." She rushed out of the room, not stopping until she was sat on the front step, a book in her hands called "Kat's favourite myths" that she couldn't yet bring herself to read.

[Golden Spider]

Clara only sends a quick look at Fizz and Nat as Kate rushes off before quickly following her. Her hesitation however was just enough to lose track of the other woman, and it took her a couple of minutes of searching the rest of the house before she found her way to the front steps.

Sitting down besides Kate, Clara didn't say anything. just nudged Kate's leg with her own gently, then allowed them to sit in silence, Clara has a feeling that this was a moment that would just take time, that any prompting to speak on her behalf would only cause Kate to further withdraw.

[Lady Jenn]

Kate was silent for a few moments, staring off into space as she tried to gather her thoughts.

"I should've remembered it from the word 'Timeless'," she finally said. "I was obsessed with legends as a kid and yet somehow my mind didn't make the link. The Aesir Eir..." She paused, trying to think how to describe what was in her mind. "There was a myth on my Earth, it said that there were...creatures out there. Not quite gods, but something...like them. Said to have created the world then abandoned it for some reason. They were called Aesir Eir. It might be one hell of a coincidence but..." She trailed off, feeling a little overwhelmed.

[Golden Spider]

Clara wrapped her in a sideways hug, putting her arms around the woman. "it would definitely be one hell of a coincidence, but these things could've just been named after the myth, instead of the other way around. But how would the timeless know that." she then mused almost instantly ruling out her own hypothesis. "what else does the book say about them, I know its hard, but any information that it could give may help us. If the Timeless are running from the Aesir Eir then maybe we have a bigger problem to worry about."

[Lady Jenn]

Kate took a moment to lean into the hug, the feeling of safety in Clara's arms helping her regain some of her composure.

"There's not much," she replied. "Not helped by the fact a lot of it was locked away because the person who wrote most of it down was thought to be a little...shall we say, 'disconnected from reality'." She managed a slight laugh in spite of herself. "From what I recall the Timeless were supposed to be entities who rebelled against their masters and then fled from their wrath. God, it sounds like some weird ancient myth but...we know the Timeless are real. It makes me wonder what else is real."

[Golden Spider]

Clara chuckled a bit "well seems like Mr. Disconnected from reality was right. what else is in this book? there may be more truths then fictions in it if these two things were correct. and if the Timeless are fleeing from their wrath for disobeying the Aesir Eir then we can get a pretty important ally, or enemy of my enemy at least. If there's even a way to contact them at all." they paused for a moment, then Clara laughed again "You know I was an atheist? before all of this, If there was a god then he is and was a bastard for letting every horrible thing in the world to happen. and now we're talking about Extra-dimensional creatures that are gods for all intents and purposes. Funny how life goes sometimes."

[Lady Jenn]

Kate sighed. "Honestly, me too. You live on an Earth like mine you start to think no higher power would turn their back on..." She was silent for a moment. "I'll spare you the details on exactly what happened, but whatever romantic idea of my Earth you have...I would rather live here given the choice.

The door suddenly opened, Fizz's head appearing round the door frame. "If you two are feeling okay...you're going to want to hear what our new friend just decided to tell us."

[Golden Spider]

Clara shrugged "I won't press, I'm sure all worlds have their tragedies. But you really wouldn't want to go back to your world? Its home, and we don't know if you ever would be able to go back once this is all said and done."

Any further discussion on that path though was quickly interrupted for the moment when Fizz popped her head out. Clara looked towards Kate to see if she was ready or not. Offering her hand to the redhead, for a modicum of comfort when walking back into the building.

[Lady Jenn]

When they re-entered the room the man was no longer tied up, although Marcus was stood nearby with a pair of handcuffs in his hands in case. "Tell her Jack, she deserves to know," he said, calmly but with a hint of menace to his voice.

The man swallowed. "Kate, she...your sister. She's alive."

Kate's eyes narrowed. "No, I saw the enemy closing on her, it...I'd know if she'd got out of there somehow."

"They wanted you to believe that," Jack said. "They had to make you believe that so you wouldn't try going back for you. It's no accident you two were 'pilots' from your universe, you and your sister have an ability to access the multiverse in a way no-one else can."

Kate looked down at her hands, as if she hoped the answers would be written there. "I knew there was something weird about me, but..." She chewed her bottom lip. "We need to go rescue her, please."

"It's not that simple Kate," Natalya said. "Even ignoring the fact we don't know where they're keeping her, there's every chance you charging in there willy nilly is exactly what they want. They best way to help her is think this through, and make sure the Timeless can't use the portal on this Earth to make our job any more difficult."

[Golden Spider]

Clara wrapped Kate in a hug from behind as the processed this revelation. She knew that the news was hard to hear for the other woman, doubly so because they weren't able to go rescue her sister. "I hate to say it Kate, because I don't want you feeling like everyone is against you, but they're right. all we have is this guy's word. we don't know where she is being held or what kind of security they have. but we will rescue her." Clara said as she hugged her. before dropping to a whisper. "even if its just you and me, we will save her. I swear."

She then turned her attention to the man that they called Jack "if you knew that much then you must know more, their base of operations, their precautions, security. anything?"

[Lady Jenn]

"It's not here," Jack said. "I mean, not on this Earth. It's why they need the portal, they can't cross troops onto this Earth without it."

"Nat, why are they focusing here?" Kate asked, looking between Jack and the Russian woman. "There are god only knows how many Earths out there, why would this matter more than any other?" There was no response. "Nat, you know what's going on don't you?"

Nat shook her head. "No, but I think I know someone who does, who happens to work in the base we want. But...if we want him to talk to us we're going to have to go in the front door, if we try sneaking in he's going to get suspicious what we're there to do. Me and Fizz can do this solo if you guys aren't comfortable with it."

Kate shook her head. "If there's even a chance he can help us I need to come with you."

Lena brushed her hand against Nat's. "I made the mistake of letting you go once, let me help if there's anything I can do."

Marcus sighed. "I'm going to sit this one out. I'm good for an interrogation but if you guys actually wind up in a firefight I'm going to be no fucking help to any of you."

[Golden Spider]

Clara shook her head as well. "I know i'm not combat ready or whatever, I know I'll likely be a liability if anything goes sideways, but if theres some big secret, some big plan they have for my world, I wouldn't be able to rest if I wasn't alongside you." she said, also taking Kate's hand and giving it a squeeze to silently add. "And wouldn't be able to rest knowing you were in danger without me."

Clara looked at everyone in the room, still lingering on Jack a bit longer, still not quite willing to fully trust the man. "so what's the plan. it seems like we finally have something that isn't entirely a shot in the dark, if we need to get into this base through the front door how are we going to get that?"

[Lady Jenn]

Kate pulled her into a hug, placing a gentle kiss on her cheek and talking quietly enough that only Clara would hear her. "I don't know what I did to deserve your loyalty, but when this is over I'll pay you back for this, I promise."

Fizz rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she considered Clara's question. "We're not exactly going to be able to call this guy directly, if he's anything like the usual military contacts we deal with. But...we all know I know someone who can get us in there officially."

Nat frowned. "Fizz, are you sure you want to be calling in a favour with Spyder, especially after last time?"

Fizz laughed, a note of bitterness in her voice. "Nat, I can't ignore her forever, and...maybe by helping us we can rebuild a bridge between us. Give me five minutes, I'll call her."

Nat turned to them with a sigh. "Spyder's real name is Cindy Lamont, she's Fizz's sister, but...there was an incident before, they've not spoken since. Fizz wouldn't even tell me exactly what happened."