Cain and Illyana, this afternoon

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After this email, Illyana seeks Cain out, and they discuss the events of The Enemy Within in relation to the current problem in Limbo.

The thing about living with people, Illyana was coming to discover, was that it was a lot easier to avoid them if you had a convenient hell dimension into which you could escape. Even normal teleportation would have helped. But since both of her previous options were out, and she had not been led to believe that her previous behaviour warranted any amount of slack with any person even vaguely associated with the staff at the school, she'd come to accept that she was going to have to deal with others at least occasionally. Particularly if they asked. Even if it meant she'd likely have to address to danger-to-those-around-her issue yet again.

That in mind, she tried to keep positive: Maybe she'd accidentally wrecked the paint without noticing. "Hi, Mr. Marko," she said, cautious,raising a hand. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, have a seat." Cain motioned to the couch while he poured two mugs of coffee, setting the smaller of the two down for Illyana. Pacing around slowly, he took a drink and then looked over at the blonde girl. "So I understand you've had some trouble with Limbo, huh?"

She sat, watching him carefully. "Well," she said, shrugging, "Only if you count getting kicked out of it by a demon who seems to want to destroy the world. Then, yes."

Cain nodded, then cautiously sat down, holding his mug in both hands. Looking at his reflection in the dark liquid. "Was that my fault?" he asked quietly, not looking up.

Illyana looked up, then, eyebrows raised. That was unexpected. "I - well, I don't think so, unless you've been secretly evil or something and no one's noticed." She frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Last year," Cain said flatly. "Back when things were goin' south for me, and I asked you to keep an eye out and if it got bad, to shove me somewhere where me and him couldn't do no harm. Cyttorak, I mean. You did good, whisking us both off to Limbo where I could beat him. But... if that somehow, I dunno, broke something..." He left the thought unfinished. Ever since he'd heard that Illyana's control over Limbo had been broken, he'd wondered if the sheer power unleashed in his fight with the Elder God had started some kind of ripple effect.

"Oh." This took Illyana a little by surprise. It wasn't that she'd forgotten that, exactly, but just that she'd had other, more immediate things on her radar, and she had to take a moment to think about it. "You know," she said, finally, after what seemed to her like a long time, "I'm not really sure, but I don't think it was that. The thing in Limbo - the rebellion - it was - " How to put it? "There was this demon who was there before I was, and he left, probably to gain power, and then he came back. I mean, it's unusual, not to mention a problem, but interdimensional breakdowns are usually a little more dramatic. Relatively speaking."

She paused, and found herself obliged to be honest. "Come to think of it, it might've presented an opportunity to slip in unnoticed." Suddenly her voice went very neutral, and she stared at an indeterminate spot on the opposite wall: "But that's my fault. I should have been more careful. Spent more time being careful, anyway. From the start."

"So... that's a maybe?" Cain raised his eyebrows, completely lost in the explanation. Not waiting for a response, he just set down his coffee with a thump. "Either way, you helped me out - more than probably anyone else, you knew just what I was dealin' with, and you had my back. So what I'm sayin' is that if there's a time when you need to go get back what oughta be yours... well." He shrugged and gave a half-smile. "You watched my back, I got yours if you need it."

It took a few seconds before Illyana returned the smile, cautiously, with one of her own. "Well, um. I'd demur, but given that I'll probably need it sooner rather than later - thanks." She shrugged. "And, you know, it's really more that I don't have a damn clue what happened than anything. One explanation's as good as the next. I'd like to think that it's a little less of a headache than that you broke something with your elder god, though."

Cain nodded, taking in Illyana's explanation. "Regardless, if anything from there decides to come lookin' for you, you ain't got to face it on your own. Amanda's already set some stuff in motion to protect this place, as much as it can be, anyway. And it ain't like we've never been to this rodeo before, to the point where the kids basically use 'demon invasion' as a hazing prank for the new fish. But in all seriousness, whenever you feel like takin' it back, you let me know."

"If I ever figure out how, I will." Illyana paused. "And one can hop that the wards do their job, though ostensibly since I won't actually be living here, the chances for any kind of invasion are a little lower. Then again, I've always kind of thought this place was like a big mystical convergence of bad luck and trouble, so it's probably fifty-fifty at best."

"They'll hold," Cain said matter-of-factly. "And if they don't, there's me. Can't argue about the bad luck and trouble, though. I think Ororo's figured out how to use it as fertilizer."

"Well, she's a resourceful woman, and when you have a surplus . . . Anyway, of course they'll hold, but in the worst-case scenario, well." She lifted a hand. "I kind of like to plan for that kind of thing. It's a whole personality . . . thing."

"Good outlook to have," Cain replied. "Anyway, it's a good day out and there's a lot of work to be done, so I ain't gonna keep you. Just... you need anything, you know who to call." He stood up, reaching down to lift a large toolbox onto his shoulder. "For the moment, some moron's wrecked the paint down on the north portico. I swear, kids these days..."

"Right. Thanks." Illyana stood too, raising her eyebrows dubiously as she headed for the door. "I'm not even going to ask how someone managed to wreck the paint there. That's one of those things I'm pretty sure I'm better off not knowing."