Statutes and Limitations (Nathan, Val Cooper, Haroun)

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

Nathan's lawsuit against Gideon has an unexpected consequence - well, not that unexpected, but what happens after that, as Nathan makes Val Cooper the beneficiary of six months' worth of research, is going to be a very unpleasant surprise for his not-so-beloved uncle.


If any of the people he encountered as he strode through the first-floor halls towards his office had dared to point out that he looked displeased with the world, Nathan would have informed them that it was a significant understatement. Fortunately, the students did more cringing and running in the other direction, and the few staff members who did open their mouths thought better of it when he gave them a quick glare and continued on his way.

Bad mood notwithstanding, he was in firm control of his temper. He wouldn't have turned Charles down on his offer of sitting in on this meeting if he hadn't been. He wasn't stupid, after all. Even if asking Charles to send her down to his office had been a little petty.

"Good morning," Nathan said in a neutral voice as he walked through the door and saw Val Cooper sitting in the one of the chairs Angelo and Bobby had unearthed in their massive filing spree. "What can I do for you, Special Agent Cooper?"

"Mister Dayspring," Val said, not bothering to get up from the chair or extend a hand to Nathan. Both of them knew this wasn't liable to be a friendly or social conversation. "I received an interesting memo from the state of Alaska's Attorney General the other day. I assume you're probably aware what it concerned?"

Nathan sat down. "Presumably, it concerned the lawsuit I filed against Gideon Faraday," he said, raising an eyebrow in a silent 'Do we need to dance around the subject?' "I won't bother commenting on how soon it came to your attention. The wheels of bureaucracy can turn very quickly when they want to."

"The lawsuit doesn't concern me," Val explained, hands folded atop the large envelope in her lap. "so much as the inevitable supporting testimony that's going to be involved. You're aware that this administration has made considerable concessions and reparations for the survivors of Mistra and their families. However, it's been decided that the current political climate is a touch..." she absently removed her black-rimmed glasses, tapping them against her temple in a sign of frustration, "complicated to admit publicly the existence of Mistra."

The look in Nathan's eyes was no less frustrated. The possibility of a conversation like this happening had occurred to him - the day after he'd filed the lawsuit, at which point he'd kicked himself for not foreseeing it. If he'd talked to Charles about this more - which you should have done, idiot! - he had no doubt that it would have been pointed out to him.

"I didn't mention Mistra," he said a bit tightly, ignoring her comment about the supporting testimony, as well as her oh-so-obvious restatement of everything the administration had done for the Mistra survivors. "This lawsuit doesn't touch upon the program. I wrote that brief very carefully." He knew perfectly well that public disclosure of Mistra wasn't an option. He didn't need Val Cooper to tell him that.

"There's no way around it, Nathan," Val insisted, placing the fat envelope on his desk. "You may not plan to bring it up, but if Gideon were given the opportunity..." She left the phrase hanging there before sitting back and continuing.

"President McKenna has made it a very quiet crusade of sorts to remedy the damage caused by previous government programs. As such, the people involved are being taken to task, albeit very quietly. Carmella Ruiz was only a start. Gideon Faraday is another piece of the puzzle. One we would like to not see made public."

Gideon could bring it up? Why would he... Nathan blinked as the connection was made in his mind, and his jaw clenched as he swallowed the curse that tried to slip out. He hadn't even thought. Without anything definitive to tie Gideon to Mistra, Gideon could point to Mistra as the culprit behind Nathan's telepathic damage. Occam's razor. The simplest explanation.

Flushing, Nathan eyed the envelope on his desk for a moment and then picked it up, opening it and skimming through the documents it contained, the knot of tension in his stomach growing larger and more leaden as he did. Here, right here, was the definitive tie - documentary evidence to prove what MacInnis had remembered, that Gideon had worked with the VULCAN consulting group on the setting up of Mistra - but if she was arguing that he couldn't go ahead with the lawsuit, yet showing him these... well, that meant something else, didn't it?

"Do I want to know how long you've had these?" The question slipped out before he could stop himself, and Nathan's jaw clenched. "No, don't answer that. Wheels of bureaucracy, I know." He laid the papers back down on his desk, his hands trembling a little, and looked up at Cooper. "If anything, your focus is too narrow," he said. "Not that I have any issues with the concept of holding my uncle responsible for his role in Mistra, but speaking of puzzles, that's only the tiniest piece of this one."

"Too narrow?" Val arched an eyebrow. "We're talking about a man complicit in the deaths of over ... well, you and I both know numbers would mean nothing here. Nathan, this is over twenty years of screwing with people," she said, rapping her knuckles on the envelope. "I understand you want to make this personal, but it's larger than just you. You're not the only one who wants justice." Val replaced her glasses, folding her hands together and leaning towards Nathan. "Let us help you."

How far they'd come from that chilly drive to Arlington, Nathan thought humorlessly. Well, in this case she's not having to let a trained mutant killer near her President, is she? "No," he said, swallowing past the tightness in his throat as he got up and went over to one of the filing cabinets, "I mean, really, your focus is too narrow. Mistra and his role in it... I started looking beyond that months ago." He unlocked one of the drawers and removed half a dozen thick file folders that he turned to set in front of Cooper on a clear patch of desk.

"Those," he said, even as he moved on to the next drawer, "are the details on a network of military training camps for young mutants in Africa. The training is involuntary. Eris consulted on the set-up of each and every single one of them. Fifteen African versions of Mistra, if you want to phrase it that way." Where was the... there. All right, so Angelo and Bobby's new filing system made more sense than he'd initially thought it did.

"These," he said, pulling out another file folder and adding it to the pile, "are documents linking Eris to a school for mutants in Kazakhstan. It started off with the best of intentions and was perverted by a group within their interior ministry who was planning to siphon off the likeliest candidates for compulsory military service. The Kazakh government is still trying to sort out how to handle it."

Another two folders. "That," Nathan said, his voice unsteady, "is what little I've managed to piece together of Eris's donations and consulting support to medical NGOs in Southeast Asia, where the mutant birth rate has dropped by twenty percent over the last five years. That one's still coming together, and you have no idea how ugly it's looking. I've given copies of these files to my wife, since Moira's better equipped than I to address a problem like this."

Val's jaw dropped, breaking her professional composure. "Holy shit..." she squeaked out through a tightening throat. "You can provide legitimate backing for this? If so, Nathan... we have an open and shut case here. This is prime material to go to the Oversight Committee and cut all government ties with Eris. A bit of political pressure, and our allies will do the same." She looked over at Nathan, her eyes sparkling with revelation. "Share this with us, and we'll see him cut adrift completely."

It couldn't be this easy. It couldn't. Nathan sank back down into his chair, because he wasn't entirely sure his knees were okay to hold him just now. "Cooper-" His voice cracked. "This isn't half of it, and I have new information coming in every few days. Where do you think MacInnis and most of the surviving first-gen operatives went? Half of those camps in Africa aren't there anymore." He swallowed, then opened his laptop, waving a hand at an empty thumb drive sitting over on a bookshelf. It came floating over. "I'm not sure what you mean by legitimate backing, but I've been concentrating on finding the paper trails. For some of these matters, the paper came from inside Eris itself." Between what they'd found on that laptop, what he and LeBeau had stolen last summer, what MacInnis was sending him in a slowly increasing trickle...

Cooper choked back an immediate response. "This... would be perfect, Nathan. This..." She composed herself, sitting up straight. "I'm not empowered to make any deals with you, but I can tell you this - the President has made it a direct priority to stop things like this from happening under his watch. If you help us, I promise it won't go to waste."

"Right. I'm giving you copies of the relevant portions of my database." He had to do this and not think about it. Thinking could come later. Take the opportunity now, because she seemed fairly confident that an opportunity was what she was offering, empowered to make deals or not. "I'll send updates as they come in. For example," he said, having to put more effort into keeping his voice steady than he really would have liked, "I have someone in China at the moment, trying to find hard evidence to link Eris to a genetics research facility that breaks six... no, seven international protocols on the subject. I'm assuming things like that would be of interest, too?" He went on, not letting Cooper answer. "I'll... drop the lawsuit," he said, faltering for a moment. Not meeting her eyes. "If that's really going to complicate things."

And as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized that he'd wanted that lawsuit to go somewhere more than he'd been willing to admit to himself. Guess it's not so hard after all to want the personal wrongs righted... But he had to look at the big picture.

Val nodded, pulling a business card out and sliding it across Nathan's desk. "The moment we can get this done, I'll be in touch with you. You're doing the right thing, Nathan."

Nathan took the business card, then handed her the thumb drive. "You want to know why I'm trusting you, Cooper?" he asked after a moment, then managed a slightly uncertain smile. "Because you didn't ask me to stop. You just asked me to share."

"Years of experience, Nathan," Val responded with a smile. "Besides, there's a lot of people in Washington who don't care for what you and your people do, or who don't think you're making a difference. I don't count myself among them, and neither does my boss. I'll be in touch."


Shaken up by the conversation with Val, Nathan goes for a less-than-successful flight in his new exoskeleton. Thankfully, Haroun accompanies him, not just to critique his technique but also to urge him to see this as the victory it is.


It was a warmer day than he'd expected, Nathan realized as he stepped out onto the flyer's platform. All to the good, if he wasn't going to freeze while he was out flying. Still rattled by the conversation with Cooper, in all kinds of complex ways he couldn't quite manage to articulate even to himself, Nathan took a deep, shaky breath, and then ran at the edge of the platform.

One step off, and the firebird exoskeleton came on. He pulled out of the dive and soared upwards, right at the low-lying clouds.

As Nate was coming up, Haroun was coming down for a landing. So far, the new leathers were five-by-five. They kept him as cool as December and although he wasn't sure he had a sneaky suspicion they were helping his accel curve. But one look at Nate's face and all thoughts of landing were abandoned. He pulled alongside Nate, mindful of Big Bird's wingspan. "Nice day for a flight. Little bit of a wind from the north to watch out for." he said with a smile.

"Mm." It wasn't much of a response, but it was all Nathan could manage right that moment. He banked, away from Haroun, and dove again, brushing the treetops before he pulled up again, following the lines of force as they mimicked an updraft.

He was putting on considerably more speed than he should be. Moira had warned him about that - apparently he burnt more energy, the faster he flew.

Haroun followed along, marvelling in his head at how easy it was. It was pretty plain to see that something had Nate in a twist, and since he was up here in Haroun's domain it was time to show off. He set himself up to "orbit" Big Bird, always facing inwards so he could continue to talk to Nate. Assuming he kept things down to a reasonable speed and a reasonable altitude. "So what's got you all verklempt this time?" he asked.

"Nothing." It came out sounding rather strangled. "Good morning. Lots of progress." It didn't even occur to him to growl at Haroun for the 'this time' crack.

"You can lie better than that, Nate." Haroun said. "You may have had a good morning, but something's sticking in your craw. Do I have to annoy it out of you?"

The firebird's wings fluttered in agitation, a completely unconscious reaction that Moira had been wondering aloud about. His familiarity with Bella's mannerisms, she'd finally concluded, coming out subconsciously. "Gideon's about to have some serious problems with the US government," Nathan finally said. "Val Cooper was here. I gave her my database."

"Well hot damn." he said admiringly. "Putting the Fed to use. Who'da think? Guess it's a positive use for all those tax dollars." he laughed. "But that's not what's pissing you off."

"It's not--I'm not pissed off," Nathan protested, then dove abruptly, trying to shake Haroun for just a minute. Buy himself some time to think. He wasn't sure why he was this rattled.

Haroun kept right with him. "And you're still a lousy liar." he countered with as he kept pace with Nate's dive. "You know, you're going to need to take the Flight class if you're really serious about working Big Bird up to be a real threat."

Nathan gave a shaky laugh. "You just like the idea of me being under your thumb. Admit it. You would get alarming amounts of enjoyment out of it."

Haroun just grinned from beneath his facial wrappings. "How often do I get to put one over on someone like you? Damned few chances, lemme tell ya."

"I don't fly badly," Nathan protested, or started to. He promptly clipped a wing on the treetops and crashed.

Haroun pulled into a hover and laughed his ass off.

"Oh, shut UP!" Nathan growled at him, struggling awkwardly to get back up. The exoskeleton had stayed on, of course - the crash-testing in the Danger Room had ensured that it did - and he thankfully hadn't taken out any of the trees this time, but it was embarassing.

"You never miss a chance to mock me when I screw up. Not so much fun when the shoe's on the other foot, is it?" he said, still chuckling. "And come on, Captain Multitask gets distracted and clips a tree? Comedy gold, man."

Nathan glowered at him and stopped trying to get up like a two-legged biped. Instead, he grasped the trees with the claws of the exoskeleton, hauling himself back to the treetops like Bella hauled herself up onto furniture.

"It's not funny," he said crossly, wings ruffling again.

"Really? What's not-funny about it?" he asked with a smirk.

"Mr. Multitask is having a hell of a day," Nathan muttered. "Cut him some slack." He propelled himself back up into the air, then headed off to the east again. He had the urge to fly over water. Easier that way. He wondered if the exoskeleton floated?

"I'm dropping the lawsuit," he said to Haroun, who was keeping pace with him easily.

Haroun frowned. "What lawsuit?" he asked, puzzled. First he'd heard that Nate was suing anyone.

"I was suing Gideon," Nathan muttered. "It probably wouldn't have gone anywhere. Big deal, that I dropped it - it was a way to cause him irritation, and what Cooper can do with my information will cause him real trouble."

Haroun ahs. "And you're dropping the suit because the Boys and Girls in Washington don't want your former associations dragged out into the light of day?" he asked, thinking it through.

"They were after him over his connection to Mistra. They didn't want it dragged out in court." Nathan gave a slightly cracked-sounding laugh. "You know, I avoided it completely in my brief? Deliberately. I wasn't going to bring it up, even though it could have strengthened the case. But I didn't even think that Gideon could have brought it up in his own defense. After all, when I went through everything that I did at Mistra, what's to say that it's not responsible for my childhood memory issues?" Inside the exoskeleton, Nathan shook his head. "It didn't even occur to me," he muttered somewhat wretchedly. "The same argument Saul used to convince me that I was remembering wrongly... which I am, I just... GAH!"

Haroun kept quiet at that - Nate working through family issues that wasn't Ray or Moira tended to be a little ... testy. At the best of times. But he did send up a quick prayer to Allah that his own family was blissfully nornal and loved him dearly, and he them.

"I wanted it," Nathan said finally, as they crossed a stretch of open fields. "I really did. I was trying to convince myself that I didn't, that it was just one more piece of the strategy, but I liked the idea of him being held to account for what he did to me when I was a kid."

"His day will come." he said, full of confidence. "Maybe not at your hands directly, but it will come."

"I know. Bigger picture." It came out more bitterly than he'd intended it, and Nathan poured on some more speed, trying to edge ahead of Haroun.

Haroun jetted after his friend - it was satisfying to know that in this area, he was still better than Nate was. All Nate needed to do some days was use his brain to pick up an Aero degree to make Haroun feel completely inadequate. "Not just the bigger picture. The Government has resources you can only dream of. They can get Gideon, Saul, and everyone else involved in their slimy business over the years. Get them all, Nate. No loose ends, no waking up in the middle of the night wondering."

"I know that. I just... want what I can't have," Nathan said, amending his thought in mid-sentence somewhat wearily.

"No, you want to be out front waving the flag with a knife between your teeth." he said approvingly. "You want to do it yourself, and now you're sulking because there's a better way."

Nathan glared sideways at him. "I somehow don't think," he said bleakly, turning his attention back to where he was flying, "that telepathically raping his nephew is going to be on his list of crimes when and if he's finally brought to justice. That's just going to be one of those incidental things that gets eclipsed by what a bad man he's been in the eyes of the law."

"I'm pretty sure that that particular charge will make its way onto the laundry list." he said with a grin.

"Optimistic of you. Where's the damned ocean?" Nathan muttered.

Haroun was really starting to miss the onboard GPS at this point. "Thataway." he said. "Why?"

"I want to emulate my soon-to-be-teaching and try the swimming trick," Nathan snarked at him.

Haroun grinned. "And here I thought I'd try out for the Moroccan high-diving team." Then he paused for a second. "Does Morocco even HAVE a high-diving team? Anyway."

"Jamaica has a bobsled team," Nathan said somewhat inanely, and ascended to above the cloud cover as they approached a more populated area. No point in causing a sensation with the big fiery bird.

Haroun stayed with him, but above the cloud-cover the air was too thin to hold a decent conversation. So he spent the time flying alongside in silence, marvelling at the new leathers and the quality of the job they were doing.

By the time they go to the shore, Nathan was definitely drooping. There was a steady throbbing pain behind his eyes, and the exoskeleton... ached, in an odd way. He gave up on the idea of actually playing chicken with the water and tumbled down to a highly undignified landing on the shore.

Haroun touched down to a perfect two-point landing next to Nate. "You overextended." he said, looking at Big Bird then at Nate himself. "Let's just sit here and watch the waves until such point as you can make it back on your own."

Nathan muttered a curse and collapsed the exoskeleton, wobbling on his feet as he did. He sat down hard, taking a slightly ragged breath as he stared out at the water. "I should be thrilled," he said, and knew Haroun would know he didn't mean about overextending himself. "I just kept thinking it couldn't be that easy."

"So you get bent when things don't go well and you get bent when they do. Might I suggest that that's really not the best way you could be going about your life?" he said, whipping out his Blackberry and texting a brief message to Alison about where he'd gone. Putting the phone away, he sat down to look out over the water. "A couple of thousand miles and a course correction, and I could be home now." he said wistfully.

"It's not that simple. Or rather... it's a lot simpler than that, and that's the problem." Nathan gave a sad-sounding laugh. "You remember our abortive dinner attempt, when Saul showed up? Of course you do."

"Yeah. Never did get to dinner itself." he said sadly. "A pity, I was looking forward to it."

"When I was... out of it, flashing back, for the first time it wasn't really Saul I was seeing standing over me," Nathan said, his eyes locked on the water. "Or at least, it wasn't entirely Saul. I started to realize that it was someone else... I think it was Gideon. I think I'm starting to remember him."

"Good!" he said encouragingly.

"All of this work I've been doing with Charles since the fall, I guess. He uncovered the damage beneath the blocks. He said there might be fragments." Nathan shook his head slowly. "The thing, Haroun, is that I'm not scared, in this memory. Or not just scared. I'm angry, too... and it's a child's anger. Selfish anger. But I'm feeling it for the first time," he went on, troubled, "and so it's hard to remember that."

Haroun shrugged. "Way over my head, man. But you're getting something back, and I have to think that's a good thing." he said. "The ins and outs of how the mind works and how memories get stored is way, way outside my field. Ask me about Bernoulli or how best to make a shrapnel bomb out of a car and a chunk of plastique and I'm your boy."

Nathan took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting the air in his lungs out on a sigh. "Six months," he said heavily. "It feels like it's been a lot longer than that. But I feel like I've been bracing myself the whole time. I suppose..." He paused, opening his eyes and smiling very slightly. "I suppose that's part of why I wasn't sure how to react to Cooper today. The idea of getting out from under it, even partially..."

Haroun shrugged. "You need to work on how you react to stuff, man. If this is how you get when you triumph..."

"When was the last time I had a 'triumph' that didn't come with one hell of a price in the end?" Nathan asked a bit testily.

"Welcome to life." he said testily. "All triumphs have a cost attached to them. Sometimes paid by us, sometimes paid by others."

"I thought we had a victory in December," Nathan said, his gaze going back to the water. "When we got all that information about the camps. And it was... but then Gideon took the price in GW's blood. I think I'm entitled to worry a little about what he might do when the US government drops the hammer on him," Nathan said bleakly.

"The US Government is far better prepared to absorb the hammer-drop than you, me or anyone else around here." he pointed out.

"He'll know that some of what they're using came from me. I haven't precisely been discreet. Not in Africa, not in Kazakhstan, not in looking into this mess in Southeast Asia..." Nathan sighed and rubbed at his temples. "I'm afraid of him," he admitted quietly. "I'm angry, but I'm afraid."

Haroun nodded. "He has been the Bogeyman in your life since pretty much conception." he said with a ghost of a grin. "But look at it this way - you tough it out for six more months or so and you're home-free."

"Gah. Six months more of this?" Nathan responded with an equally wan smile as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Don't know about that. But I'm not planning on quitting anytime soon."

"I was planning for the worst." he said with a shrug. "You're not going to know what to do with yourself when it's all over. Too much peace in your life, you'll get bored."

"Nonsense." His smile was a little stronger. "I have two demanding redheads in my life. And a whole cadre of trainees to torment."

Haroun just laughed. "Yeah, but if you take over trainee-tormenting you'll be stealing all the relaxation and fun out of my life. Hell, I had to give up my music, don't take away my trainee-torturing!" he grinned.

"You can share," Nathan said with a softer laugh. "There are plenty of the little monkeys to go around these days."

"And we have Speedbump to pick on as well - there's enough of him to go around." he said with a laugh. "We must be doing something right - seems a good number of the kids have decided to follow in our footsteps."

"I'm going to be really interested to see how Jamie finds the training," Nathan said, a contemplative note in his voice. "Not to mention Terry and Clarice, when they get there... such a range of personalities."

"I've got my doubts, but maybe they'll surprise me. They'll bring a good force-multiplier mix to the team, that's for sure." he said approvingly. "Assuming they shake out, which I have my doubts about."

"Always the pessimist," Nathan said. "And you tell me I don't handle success well."

"Hey, I'm always happy to be surprised positively." he said. "But someone's got to play Devil's Advocate and ask the hard questions. Keeps things from turning into a lovefest."

"And we can't have that, can we?" Nathan asked wryly, getting up. He concentrated, and the exoskeleton took shape around him, and he launched himself upwards, over the water and then back in a smooth arc. "I think I can make it back," he said more briskly. "Although we might take it a little more slowly."

Haroun nodded and launched himself into the air as well. "No rush." he said. "Slow and steady wins the race, and all that crap."